[ExI] How slow is capitalism?

[Keith Henson]

2011/4/26 Jones Murphy <morphy at alumni.caltech.edu>:
> A collapse of civilization will not end money, though it might return it to
> a more concrete form for a while.

I agree.  The people who hold physical gold and silver will win, and
loose because they will mostly starve or be robbed.  But all that
money in the bank and on Wall street will be just gone as if it never
existed if the power fails.

> I do not disagree that there ought to be
> more talent focused on R&D, though.

It's not just R&D.  There needs to be a concrete willingness to spend
vast sum of money on infrastructure.

Ground based solar and wind will not supplant oil.  SBSP, StratoSolar
or something out of left field might.

Once you get primary energy under control, consider what it will cost
for synthetic oil plants (or other ways to make energy portable).  The
US uses about 20 M bbls per day.  A billion dollar plant makes about
40,000 bbls per day.  We will need 500 of them at a billion each.
They will draw around 2 TW at at least $1200 B per TW.

If it is done (and I doubt it) this will result in real returns on
real investments.

Keith

> On Apr 27, 2011 8:42 AM, "Keith Henson" <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 10:41 PM, Jones Murphy
> <morphy at alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>> Keith, you're so...
>
> You can call it capitalism if you want and I will call it a colossal
> waste of talent.
>
> But don't complain when you wake up one morning and the power is off
> for good along with the Internet and nobody has any idea of how much
> "money" they have because it was all recorded in magnetic dots on
> spinning disks.
>
> Keith
>
>> On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 7:21 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> On Tue, Apr 26, ...
>
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